Lesbian mum hits back at CSA claims

A LESBIAN who had children with her partner thanks to a friend who donated sperm has hit back at claims that the man is being unfairly asked to pay child support. Andy Bathie, 37, from London, has said he was assured by Sharon and Terri Arnold that he would have no personal or financial involvement in the children's upbringing.

A LESBIAN who had children with her partner thanks to a friend who donated sperm has hit back at claims that the man is being unfairly asked to pay child support.

Andy Bathie, 37, from London, has said he was assured by Sharon and Terri Arnold that he would have no personal or financial involvement in the children's upbringing.

He claims he is now being forced by the Child Support Agency to pay thousands in maintenance for the boy and girl the couple had. He is campaigning for a change in the law to stop him being recognised as their legal parent.

But Ms Arnold - who has since separated from her partner - insisted Mr Bathie had acted as a father to the children for a large part of their lives.

She said: "What people don't understand is that they have only heard one side of the story.

"He was a father to the children, a dad. He played a father's role for two years of their, well, my daughter's life."

The couple approached Mr Bathie five years ago after a civil ceremony, and Ms Arnold admitted the initial arrangement was for him just to be a donor.

She said: "I will openly admit to that, but it was him that changed his mind. He wanted to be involved, he wanted to be a dad. Who was I to stop him?

"At the end of the day, I believed it would be beneficial for my children to have their father involved. He wanted that responsibility."

Far from never seeing his daughter, the fireman was in regular contact and looked after her one weekend every month, the mother of two added. Mr Bathie had not wanted to go on the birth certificate, Ms Arnold continued, before stressing that she would be pursuing the case even if she and her partner were still together.

She said: "At the end of the day, he walked away. He knew full well. It is not like the CSA contacted him out of the blue."

Mr Bathie said that he could not afford to have children with his own wife because of the financial implications of child support.

Mr Bathie - who did not donate through a clinic - was contacted by the CSA in November last year about payments.

He told how he had reacted with `shock, anger, despair'.

He said: "I don't have any particular ill will.

"It's the fact that I still even now don't see why I should have to pay for another couple's children."

Only men who donate sperm through licensed fertility clinics are not considered the legal father of any child born as a result of a donation. A spokesman for Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said: yesterday: "Men giving out their sperm in any other way - such as via internet arrangements - are legally the father of any children born, with all the responsibilities that carries."

The CSA said a child would have to be legally adopted for a biological parent to escape financial responsibility and insisted its legislation was not gender- or partnership-biased.